Prime Video's Mass Effect television show faces an impossible challenge

Prime Video is officially developing a television series based on the Mass Effect video games. And I'm nervous that the odds are stacked so high against it that not even Commander Shepherd can win this one.

Last week, Variety broke the news that the streaming service was working on a Mass Effect show, with Fast & Furious 9 writer Daniel Casey attached to write and executive produce. In addition to Casey, Ari Arad and EA's Michael Gamble will also serve as executive producers. It was first reported back in 2021 that Amazon was in negotiations to develop a Mass Effect series, but this announcement makes it real.

For right now, that's all we know. But since Amazon is seemingly moving forward with Mass Effect, it's time to confront the question: is it even possible to make a good Mass Effect show? The answer is of course yes — Mass Effect is one of the all-time great video game sagas. It's cinematic, and its ambitious storytelling would lend itself well to the big or small screen. But at the same time, I find myself skeptical. To talk about why, we have to dig into some of what made the Mass Effect video games so special in the first place.

What is Mass Effect about and why is it such a beloved series?

Let's start with the story. Mass Effect is the tale of a soldier named Commander Shepherd, who becomes the very first human to be inducted into the order of the Spectres: elite fixers who answer to no one save a high Council of representatives from the galaxy's most powerful alien races. Spectres have carte blanche for how they solve problems; they are above the law, and unless their actions cause a crisis, they have leave to pursue resolutions to conflicts no matter how bloody things get.

Against all odds and skepticism from the levers of power at every level, Shepherd has to gather various teams of allies and stave off an existential threat to all life in the known universe: the Reapers, an ancient race of robotic aliens which return periodically to purge the stars. The companions Shepherd meets along the way are a huge part of Mass Effect's magic; some are humans, others are aliens, and all of them have big personalities that develop over the course of the series. Oh, and Shepherd can get into romantic relationships with many of them as well. We can't forget to mention the alien sex.

The original trilogy of Mass Effect games from Bioware was released from 2007 to 2011, and to this day stands as one of the finest video game sagas ever made. There's also a fourth game released in 2017, Mass Effect Andromeda, but I highly doubt Amazon's adaptation will touch that divisive entry in the series, especially since it's much more disconnected from the previous games. In my opinion we're either looking at an adaptation of the original trilogy, or a completely new story set in the Mass Effect world.

Beyond the fact that the storytelling in the original trilogy is just incredibly good — easily on par with any top-tier movie, show, or novel — the way that Mass Effect tells Shepherd's story remains revolutionary. Many of the player's choices as Shepherd have repercussions which carry on from one game to the next, creating branching narratives that can result in wildly different experiences on each playthrough.

Shepherd can either be a heroic leader who rights all wrongs, known as a Paragon, or a human isolationist who's fine with killing people to resolve situations, a Renegade. He (or she) can also fall somewhere in the middle depending on how often he takes the diplomatic or aggressive approach; as I said, Mass Effect's storytelling is all about the choices.

Other games like Baldur's Gate 3 have an even greater level of player choice, but no other video game series has successfully carried those choices and character developments between entries as well as Mass Effect did. To this day, I don't think there has ever been as airtight of a game trilogy, at least from a storytelling perspective.

The level of agency would be a difficult challenge for a television show. Do they make Shepherd a Paragon, a Renegade, or something in between? Is there a canon romance or two that would appear in the show? These are big questions, and while a TV show could understandably work around them, I think it starts to lead us to the real issue: Mass Effect as a video game made the absolute most of its medium to tell its story. And there are things video games can do that television shows can't, just like all mediums have their specific strengths and nuances.

Because Mass Effect utilized its medium to such an insane degree, it puts any television adaptation in the unenviable position of trying to re-create something which was basically perfect the first time. Yes, there were cringe moments and issues, I'm not saying Mass Effect is flawless...but I do think it's close enough to make adaptation as daunting a task as the famed suicide run ending to Mass Effect 2.

My favorite store on the Citadel...

Beyond the storytelling itself, there's also the scope to consider. Mass Effect is a massive series, filled with unique worlds, alien civilizations and creatures, epic action set pieces and space travel. It goes pretty much without saying that unless Amazon went the animation route, any Mass Effect show would have to have a considerable budget. It would also have to have some insane craftsmanship behind the scenes. Alien races like the Turians, Krogans, and Salarians all look great in a game, but how well could they be brought to life in a live-action television show?

The most recent TV series to attempt to bring similar-looking aliens to life is Halo, Paramount+'s now-canceled show based on another very popular video game series. The aliens in the Halo show looked pretty decent, but they were all created with CGI. I don't know that that would work as well for Mass Effect, because these aliens are far more personable. Or some of them are, at least. I think we can stick to CGI for the truly fantastical races such as the jellyfish-like Hanar.

Given how expensive it would have to be, a Mass Effect show would basically need to become a megahit for Amazon to even be worth pursuing. And I think we've seen plenty of examples of how that has gone wrong in recent years, with streamers canceling shows after just one season if they don't become the biggest thing around.

Could a Mass Effect show tell an original story, like Fallout?

Perhaps the answer lies with another Prime Video show based on a video game: Fallout. That show premiered earlier this year and was a hit with critics and audiences alike. Fallout took a very different approach to its storytelling than, say, HBO's The Last of Us. Instead of explicitly adapting a story from one of the video games, Fallout told an original tale in the same world, set around a decade after the most recent Fallout game. That worked really well for the show, giving it room to experiment and come up with a compelling tale without stepping on material that people were already familiar with.

Going this route for Mass Effect wouldn't necessarily solve any budgetary problems, but it might go a long way toward avoiding the storytelling traps I mentioned above. There is simply no way a Mass Effect TV show can tell its story as effectively as the games did, and I will die on this hill. But a different story? Sure.

Doing something original would come with its own hurdles, namely that when many fans hear "Mass Effect," their minds immediately go to that original trilogy and Commander Shepherd. But that is a far easier challenge than bringing the complex and sprawling nature of the video games to the small screen. I fear that if Amazon does a straight adaptation of the Mass Effect trilogy, they'll have to pare it down so much that they'll lose many of the pieces that made the game series so special in the first place.

Mass Effect is still in early development, so all we have right now is speculation. I don't want to be a doomer saying it could never work. But at the same time, it's hard to look at the absolute masterpiece that was the Mass Effect trilogy and imagine a television show being anywhere close to as good. That's the difficulty of adapting a story which was already a masterwork in its original medium. But perhaps Amazon has some hidden trick up its sleeve that'll help Commander Shepherd beat the odds. It wouldn't be the first time.

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